It's the faces that say it all. Bewilderment at what happened through an unstoppable force of nature measured by some cynicism that we who pass by in our 4X4 Lexus off-roader will actually do something to help. They are probably right. Altho' my current client has distributed tents and other commodities it remains to be seen whether the Government of Pakistan and the international aid agencies will do more than do the minimum. Pakistan is so mistrusted that the international community has dragged its feet more than usual. These people have lost everything to a flood of Biblical proportions and it is almost beyond imagination what it must have been like to watch the water slowly rise. This wasn't a dramatic, disaster-movie destruction, but a slow, inexorable, creeping up of water that destroyed fields and crops ... read more

It's been quiet enough in Kandahar City for the last few weeks, perhaps a lull before the storm or a "Phony War", but according to reports in fact the time when the Coalition has been tightening the so-called "Ring of Steel" around the City as part of "Operation Hamkari". We've had the occasional "crack and thump". For the non-military, an AK round makes a "crack" as it goes overhead... the "thumps" are usually the Bad Guys getting whacked in return... A bit like a Monty Python sketch - Bad Guy pops off a couple of rounds, then a big THUMP and he's gone. Anyway, yesterday afternoon (first day of Ramadan, Wednesday 11th August) things seemed to change. There was a lot of helo activity (Kiowa gunships) over an outlying district to the South-West of the City ... read more

At long last a short break from Afghanistan and back home to Thailand. Hardly a breath of fresh air, because this time of year it's the 'small rains' and the sky is often grey and the air muggy. But as an alternative to Kandahar - no contest at all! The highlight of the trip home was to take my daughter Seiya (aged 16) to a small wat (temple), Wat Panitaram, located on the Bang Pakong River east of Bangkok towards Chachoengsao. She and her mum are both students of the Buddha and go on serious meditation retreats. But this time was a bit more oriented to younger people and Seiya went on her own for 5 days. The idea was to learn more of the teachings of the Buddha and to sit in 'samadhi' or meditation. ... read more

After my trip to Georgia in March I posted about the amazing statue of Stalin in the central square of his birthplace at Gori. I'm so glad I had the chance to visit and see this sight, because now its GONE! Here a report from Civil.ge:In an unannounced move, after midnight on June 25, the authorities removed the bronze statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin from the central square of his hometown of Gori. The statue, which is planned to be moved to Stalin’s museum in Gori, will be replaced with a memorial of “victims of totalitarian regime and of the August war,” officials said. The late night removal of the statue apparently aimed at avoiding possible protest of those local residents of Gori, who were strongly against of the statue's removal from the town's central ... read more

Our mission: to look at the possibilities for agriculture south of Kandahar City. Where we got to: Tarnak Agricultural Research Station, better known as Osama Bin Laden's training centre, famous for the videos of Al Qaeda recruits running over the assault course. Tarnak Farm is where it all started. All this frightful mess and loss of life we've suffered in the last ten years. 9/11 was planned here and the leader, Mohammed Atta, apparently made his will here before he left to attack the Twin Towers. OBL moved to Tarnak in 1998 as a guest of the Taliban government (yes, the Taliban WAS the legitimate Afghan Government between 1996 and late 2001) when his residence near Jallalabad was threatened. There is a suggestion that the Clinton Administration planned to kidnap him at that time which would ... read more